The Saturday edition of the ABC 33/40 Weather Xtreme Video is available in the player below, and on iTunes:
Only two days until Christmas and some interesting developments in the latest forecast. Looks like a great day across Central Alabama for the Papa John’s Bowl at Legion Field today. Should see temperatures in the lower 60s with a good deal of sun and a north wind of 6 to 12 mph. I’d call that nearly ideal weather for a football game. Wish I could go, but I’ll be filling in for John Oldshue on the 6 and 10 pm weather.
Our dry weather will be short-lived as rain returns to the forecast Sunday night and Monday. A strong short wave in the upper air pattern will form a surface low in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. The surface low will track north-northeastward across Alabama on Christmas Day, so rain will be very likely Sunday night and Monday. As the surface low moves away from Alabama toward Pennsylvania, the upper trough will bring a strong northwesterly flow pattern to the Southeast and some relatively cold air. As the low moves north-northeast moisture will wrap around the low setting up a situation where snow flurries are possible across northern Alabama Christmas night. The most likely time for snow flurries will be after 10 pm. And let me stress that this type of weather situation is not the kind that usually brings measurable snow to Alabama. And ground temperatures are quite warm with the week or more of above normal temperatures, so any snow should not cause travel problems.
The pattern dries out on Wednesday after rainfall amounts that once again could be in the one to one and a half inch range. Rainfall observed at the Birmingham airport was around one and quarter inches in the rain yesterday. The good soaking rain really helped out on the rain deficit but we’re still about an inch and a half below the normal rain for December.
The pattern shifts northward for a few days but by Friday another upper air low is diving into northern Mexico. This one according to the GFS is going to be too far south to really have much impact on us. That upper level trouch decouples from the main trough which is expected to drag a front into the Ohio Valley late Saturday.
Further out in voodoo land, the overall pattern remains fairly active but there is nothing to suggest anything extreme for us in terms of cold weather or thunderstorms. A series of traveling storms will bring rain chances about every three days or so.
That does it for this edition of Weather Xtreme Video. Thanks for joining me. I’ll be filling in for John over the weekend, so you are invited to join us at 6 and 10 pm tonight on ABC 33/40. Have a great Saturday. God bless.
-Brian-
